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Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Chinese ties
Not a very good day for Chinese intelligence operations in the US:
So Charles Leiber was found guilty. What is interesting is the number of faculty who are now saying this is horrible and damages US science, we should be working with China, Leiber is the super great scientists who should have had the charges dropped and so on. Just from reading the details in the case it sounds like he was guilty and aware of what he was doing. I also do not buy the arguments from the other professors. LANL got caught up in the 1000 talents scandal as well with one of the staff members being arrested in 2019. I once ran into a LBNL guy who also said he also ha lab in China and complained about all the paper work he had to do. I guess it was all legit but it sure seemed odd to me.
How long can a democracy endure if it continues to generate such sweeping rejection from the people in whose name it purports to act?
How long before the American people, who consistently show a lack of confidence in the popular branch of government and in the course in which it is steering the nation, begin to lose confidence in the democratic system itself?
If democracy is continuously perceived as failing, can it survive?
Clearly, among the reasons for our present division and national malaise is that we have lost the great animating cause earlier generations had: the Cold War.
Americans have found no substitute cause to replace the Cold War and no substitute adversary like the late Soviet Empire.
This Nation was a thriving democracy for 170 years before the start of the cold war, so it obviously did not need it to exist. Still doesn't !
12/26/2021 12:38 PM
I partially agree with this however I also agree with what many political scientists and economists are arguing America is losing any sense of self identity . Before you get on my case I am simply responding to several recent studies that have said the US may be most divided since that Civil war or that a new Civil war is coming.
The book in which Walter looks at those risk factors in the US, How Civil Wars Start, will be published in January. According to the Post, she writes: “No one wants to believe that their beloved democracy is in decline, or headed toward war.” But “if you were an analyst in a foreign country looking at events in America – the same way you’d look at events in Ukraine or Ivory Coast or Venezuela – you would go down a checklist, assessing each of the conditions that make civil war likely. “And what you would find is that the United States, a democracy founded more than two centuries ago, has entered very dangerous territory.”
To keep the things relevant to the blog, one can ask what would happen to the labs if the nation starts to fall apart or California declares itself independent if Trump wins in 2024. During the cold war people who worked at the labs really felt they where part of larger mission to protect the United States or the free world. Now people conned LLN/LANL to be job, nothing more nothing less, they work for the money, they do not care what the goals of the lab, are why the labs exist or the history of the labs.
So without a cold war having such a large NNSA complex makes no sense.
12/25/2021 5:38 PM
You haven't noticed that we have a new cold war? China has noticed. So has Putin. This one is on two fronts simultaneously. Ukraine and Taiwan, to both of which the US has pledged support, could erupt into shooting wars any day. Both of their adversaries have nukes. How is that not a new, much more dangerous cold war?
Why would we support Taiwan it belongs to China anyway. We are not in a cold war with China. I agree that Russia is a threat which can be seen by its interference in the US elections.
In any case I think few a large fraction of Americans see no point in supporting Taiwan or Ukraine. For millions of American the big threat is the police, the systems, and being marginalized, not being allowed to vote or not being allowed to become citizens in a nation that they essentially built.
For millions of American the big threat is the police, the systems, and being marginalized, not being allowed to vote or not being allowed to become citizens in a nation that they essentially built.
12/27/2021 10:16 PM
So millions of Americans are ignorant and short-sighted about their security. Just like before Pearl Harbor. Wonderful.
The biggest threat to our security is not China nor Russia, it is ourselves. We are our own worst enemy. We don't need an external enemy, America is destroying itself from within.
Those who are most concerned about the external enemy are the biggest threat.
This isn't saying that China or Russia aren't threats, they just pale in comparison to the enemy within.
Funny how people think nowadays. We started talking about something real - the Chinese stealing intellectual property through the thousand talents program. We ended talking about hypothetical nonsense like a US Civil war, a war in Ukraine or Taiwan, a new “Cold war” with China (maybe the last is what the republicans in congress want to help the defense industry). Would be nice if people could stick with reality, not their imagination.
I really don't want to know what you consider "the enemy from within," but I have to ask, just so I can get my chuckle for the day.
12/30/2021 4:57 PM
Did you remember Jan 6, 2021? Last time I checked that was far worse they anything than China is doing. We have millions of Americans who are definitely a threat maybe up to 80 million. As someone posted several Generals and professors are saying we are now close to a Civil war.
"We ended talking about hypothetical nonsense like a US Civil war"
Again you seem to have forgotten what happened on Jan 6th and what is happing now? Did you not read the following stories? I could put endless links to stories from NYT, academic articles, Washpost, books and so on. Do you not see what is happing to our nation?
Since I made the comment about the enemy within, I'll elaborate as I was trying to be oblique to the usual political discoruse.
While China conducts extensive spying and tries to capture our technology, they also invest in lots of research. In areas where I am an expert they have gone from being laughable a decade ago to world class today. Meanwhile our research is becoming laughable. The Labs are run with mediocrity and focus on all the wrong things. The forces pushing us to mediocrity come from both sides of the political spectrum, so our slide from the pinnacle is largely self inflicted.
While the left and the right conspire to undermine American competence, the greatest threat to the Nation comes from the right. Their opposition to progress of any sort is incompatible with Science. Their support of military and corporate greed is also contributing. Those interests are more interested in enriching themselves than care for the National security.
The left commits its share of sins against national competence too, but it pales in comparison to the neo-fascists on the right.
Hi 5:33 AM. Let’s have a bit of reality here. The left and the right just passed the largest military budget in US history. It includes generous increases for R&D.
As for civil war, don’t support your arguments with opinion pieces from think tanks and former CIA officers. Very weak.
Explain 5:33 AM, republicans support the military BUT do not care about National Security? Thy support the military’s interest but not National security? Huh? Also, if they also support corporations, how could they be against progress? Don’t corporations always produce new products which is a measure of “progress”.
Why is our research laughable? Hundreds of thousands of Chines come here to study. The thousands talents program was set up by China to transfer our first-class knowledge to them. That’s what Lieber and Gang Chen at MIT were involved in. Gang Chen at MIT wrote emails to himself (strange, I know) saying “we (China) are number 2, must be number 1”.
"While the left and the right conspire to undermine American competence, the greatest threat to the Nation comes from the right. Their opposition to progress of any sort is incompatible with Science. Their support of military and corporate greed is also contributing. Those interests are more interested in enriching themselves than care for the National security."
On the whole I agree with much of what you say but I have to disagree with you that the enemy within is from the right. In my opinion much of the antiscience and anti-rationality comes from the left. They hate the idea of meritocracy. I am not sure how much interactions you gave with academic settings but there are numerous attacks on science in the name of wokness, lowering standards, and distortion of what science is. You are also starting to see things like your science has to be fighting against racism or against capitalism or it should not be funded. It it starting to effects grant writing process with their being whole sections of grants now dedicated to how your research needs to advance various "woke" causes which is up to 50% of the criteria for how they are selected in some cases. Many grants are now being given simply on diversity issues rather than science . I have no problem with some initiatives in this direction but things are getting to bizarre proportions now. You see this in who gets fellowships to various societies, who gets into the AAS, the national academy of sciences and graduate fellowships. All you have to do is look at the "scientists" who won the recent McArthur genius awards to see that it has become a total joke.
The only initiatives I haver seen to keep us competitive with China come from the right while the left says the idea of competing with China is racist.
A more likely scenario is that the "enemy from within" is simply a combination of aspects of both sides. I understand how one could say the right is anti science with a push for a religious view of the world, or that private business should run everything. This has been a traditional view from the right. The problem is now if you where say center left or center right you are now considered fascist by the left. People who voted for Bill Clinton in 1996 would no be considered far right.
As for the decline of the labs I would have to put the blame on the right wing . The big push to privatize everything came from the right. The lab management style is now much more aligned with crony capitalism, where it is all about maximizing the money. To most lab management the only reason to work at the labs is to get a high paycheck and to do little work. It is has nothing to with national security, science, and even serving the nation.
"but it pales in comparison to the neo-fascists on the right."
Ok I agreed with you up to some point but with the last statement you lose all credibility with me. First of all do you even know what Fascism is? I suspect you have no idea. You can say many things about the modern right but the idea that they are Fascists is nonsense and so serious scholar of history, economics, or political science would call them that. It makes you look ridicules and like someone who is just repeating a talking point of something you do not understand. The most major and constant theme of the right is less government. Think about that last part, just think about it.
"In areas where I am an expert they have gone from being laughable a decade ago to world class today."
I find it hard to believe that you could actually be a scientist and an expert in a scientific field. I would expect that any scientist who could qualify as an expert in a field would have enough understating of history or rational thought to of not make a simple minded repeats of a brain dead talking points.
Please tell me you do not actually work at LLNL or LANL or that you have a degree in science. Please I do not want to leave 2021 knowing that we have someone working at the labs that does not know what Fascism actually is, especially given the history of the labs. I thought we had to do some orientation you first week at the lab and they would explain the world in 1943 and that Japan was Imperial, Germany was Fascist, Russia was Communist, and what these terms mean.
I get it that I should proof read my post more but at least I know who fought in WW2 and their political ideologies.
17 comments:
So Charles Leiber was found guilty. What is interesting is the number of faculty who are now saying this is horrible and damages US science, we should be working with China, Leiber is the super great scientists who should have had the charges dropped and so on. Just from reading the details in the case it sounds like he was guilty and aware of what he was doing. I also do not buy the arguments from the other professors. LANL got caught up in the 1000 talents scandal as well with one of the staff members being arrested in 2019. I once ran into a LBNL guy who also said he also ha lab in China and complained about all the paper work he had to do. I guess it was all legit but it sure seemed odd to me.
Convicted of tax evasion. No matter what criminal activities you engage in, always pay your taxes.
So without a cold war having such a large NNSA complex makes no sense.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/buchanan-has-america-lost-its-faith
How long can a democracy endure if it continues to generate such sweeping rejection from the people in whose name it purports to act?
How long before the American people, who consistently show a lack of confidence in the popular branch of government and in the course in which it is steering the nation, begin to lose confidence in the democratic system itself?
If democracy is continuously perceived as failing, can it survive?
Clearly, among the reasons for our present division and national malaise is that we have lost the great animating cause earlier generations had: the Cold War.
Americans have found no substitute cause to replace the Cold War and no substitute adversary like the late Soviet Empire.
12/25/2021 5:38 PM
This Nation was a thriving democracy for 170 years before the start of the cold war, so it obviously did not need it to exist. Still doesn't !
This Nation was a thriving democracy for 170 years before the start of the cold war, so it obviously did not need it to exist. Still doesn't !
12/26/2021 12:38 PM
I partially agree with this however I also agree with what many political scientists and economists are arguing America is losing any sense of self identity . Before you get on my case I am simply responding to several recent studies that have said the US may be most divided since that Civil war or that a new Civil war is coming.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/09/16/is-the-us-headed-for-another-civil-war/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/22/nation/america-is-closer-civil-war-than-any-us-would-like-believe-cia-advisor-says/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/eaton-taguba-anderson-generals-military/
The book in which Walter looks at those risk factors in the US, How Civil Wars Start, will be published in January. According to the Post, she writes: “No one wants to believe that their beloved democracy is in decline, or headed toward war.” But “if you were an analyst in a foreign country looking at events in America – the same way you’d look at events in Ukraine or Ivory Coast or Venezuela – you would go down a checklist, assessing each of the conditions that make civil war likely. “And what you would find is that the United States, a democracy founded more than two centuries ago, has entered very dangerous territory.”
To keep the things relevant to the blog, one can ask what would happen to the labs if the nation starts to fall apart or California declares itself independent if Trump wins in 2024. During the cold war people who worked at the labs really felt they where part of larger mission to protect the United States or the free world. Now people conned LLN/LANL to be job, nothing more nothing less, they work for the money, they do not care what the goals of the lab, are why the labs exist or the history of the labs.
So without a cold war having such a large NNSA complex makes no sense.
12/25/2021 5:38 PM
You haven't noticed that we have a new cold war? China has noticed. So has Putin. This one is on two fronts simultaneously. Ukraine and Taiwan, to both of which the US has pledged support, could erupt into shooting wars any day. Both of their adversaries have nukes. How is that not a new, much more dangerous cold war?
12/27/2021 5:28 PM
Why would we support Taiwan it belongs to China anyway. We are not in a cold war with China. I agree that Russia is a threat which can be seen by its interference in the US elections.
In any case I think few a large fraction of Americans see no point in supporting Taiwan or Ukraine. For millions of American the big threat is the police, the systems, and being marginalized, not being allowed to vote or not being allowed to become citizens in a nation that they essentially built.
For millions of American the big threat is the police, the systems, and being marginalized, not being allowed to vote or not being allowed to become citizens in a nation that they essentially built.
12/27/2021 10:16 PM
So millions of Americans are ignorant and short-sighted about their security. Just like before Pearl Harbor. Wonderful.
The biggest threat to our security is not China nor Russia, it is ourselves. We are our own worst enemy. We don't need an external enemy, America is destroying itself from within.
Those who are most concerned about the external enemy are the biggest threat.
This isn't saying that China or Russia aren't threats, they just pale in comparison to the enemy within.
12/30/2021 9:00 AM
I really don't want to know what you consider "the enemy from within," but I have to ask, just so I can get my chuckle for the day.
Funny how people think nowadays. We started talking about something real - the Chinese stealing intellectual property through the thousand talents program. We ended talking about hypothetical nonsense like a US Civil war, a war in Ukraine or Taiwan, a new “Cold war” with China (maybe the last is what the republicans in congress want to help the defense industry). Would be nice if people could stick with reality, not their imagination.
I really don't want to know what you consider "the enemy from within," but I have to ask, just so I can get my chuckle for the day.
12/30/2021 4:57 PM
Did you remember Jan 6, 2021? Last time I checked that was far worse they anything than China is doing. We have millions of Americans who are definitely a threat maybe up to 80 million. As someone posted several Generals and professors are saying we are now close to a Civil war.
"We ended talking about hypothetical nonsense like a US Civil war"
Again you seem to have forgotten what happened on Jan 6th and what is happing now? Did you not read the following stories? I could put endless links to stories from NYT, academic articles, Washpost, books and so on. Do you not see what is happing to our nation?
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/09/16/is-the-us-headed-for-another-civil-war/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/22/nation/america-is-closer-civil-war-than-any-us-would-like-believe-cia-advisor-says/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/eaton-taguba-anderson-generals-military/
Make no mistake the labs are going to have get involved with this. The labs are about national security.
Since I made the comment about the enemy within, I'll elaborate as I was trying to be oblique to the usual political discoruse.
While China conducts extensive spying and tries to capture our technology, they also invest in lots of research. In areas where I am an expert they have gone from being laughable a decade ago to world class today. Meanwhile our research is becoming laughable. The Labs are run with mediocrity and focus on all the wrong things. The forces pushing us to mediocrity come from both sides of the political spectrum, so our slide from the pinnacle is largely self inflicted.
While the left and the right conspire to undermine American competence, the greatest threat to the Nation comes from the right. Their opposition to progress of any sort is incompatible with Science. Their support of military and corporate greed is also contributing. Those interests are more interested in enriching themselves than care for the National security.
The left commits its share of sins against national competence too, but it pales in comparison to the neo-fascists on the right.
Hi 5:33 AM. Let’s have a bit of reality here. The left and the right just passed the largest military budget in US history. It includes generous increases for R&D.
As for civil war, don’t support your arguments with opinion pieces from think tanks and former CIA officers. Very weak.
Explain 5:33 AM, republicans support the military BUT do not care about National Security? Thy support the military’s interest but not National security? Huh? Also, if they also support corporations, how could they be against progress? Don’t corporations always produce new products which is a measure of “progress”.
Why is our research laughable? Hundreds of thousands of Chines come here to study. The thousands talents program was set up by China to transfer our first-class knowledge to them. That’s what Lieber and Gang Chen at MIT were involved in. Gang Chen at MIT wrote emails to himself (strange, I know) saying “we (China) are number 2, must be number 1”.
"While the left and the right conspire to undermine American competence, the greatest threat to the Nation comes from the right. Their opposition to progress of any sort is incompatible with Science. Their support of military and corporate greed is also contributing. Those interests are more interested in enriching themselves than care for the National security."
On the whole I agree with much of what you say but I have to disagree with you that the enemy within is from the right. In my opinion much of the antiscience and anti-rationality comes from the left. They hate the idea of meritocracy. I am not sure how much interactions you gave with academic settings but there are numerous attacks on science in the name of wokness, lowering standards, and distortion of what science is. You are also starting to see things like your science has to be fighting against racism or against capitalism or it should not be funded. It it starting to effects grant writing process with their being whole sections of grants now dedicated to how your research needs to advance various "woke" causes which is up to 50% of the criteria for how they are selected in some cases. Many grants are now being given simply on diversity issues rather than science . I have no problem with some initiatives in this direction but things are getting to bizarre proportions now. You see this in who gets fellowships to various societies, who gets into the AAS, the national academy of sciences and graduate fellowships. All you have to do is look at the "scientists" who won the recent McArthur genius awards to see that it has become a total joke.
The only initiatives I haver seen to keep us competitive with China come from the right while the left says the idea of competing with China is racist.
A more likely scenario is that the "enemy from within" is simply a combination of aspects of both sides. I understand how one could say
the right is anti science with a push for a religious view of the world, or that private business should run everything. This has been a traditional view from the right. The problem is now if you where say center left or center right you are now considered fascist by the left. People who voted for Bill Clinton in 1996 would no be considered far right.
As for the decline of the labs I would have to put the blame on the right wing . The big push to privatize everything came from the right. The lab management style is now much more aligned with crony capitalism, where it is all about maximizing the money. To most lab management the only reason to work at the labs is to get a high paycheck and to do little work. It is has nothing to with national security, science, and even serving the nation.
"but it pales in comparison to the neo-fascists on the right."
Ok I agreed with you up to some point but with the last statement you lose all credibility with me. First of all do you even know what Fascism is? I suspect you have no idea. You can say many things about the modern right but the idea that they are Fascists is nonsense and so serious scholar of history, economics, or political science would call them that. It makes you look ridicules and like someone who is just repeating a talking point of something you do not understand. The most major and constant theme of the right is less government. Think about that last part, just think about it.
"In areas where I am an expert they have gone from being laughable a decade ago to world class today."
I find it hard to believe that you could actually be a scientist and an expert in a scientific field. I would expect that any scientist who could qualify as an expert in a field would have enough understating of history or rational thought to of not make a simple minded repeats of a brain dead talking points.
Please tell me you do not actually work at LLNL or LANL or that you have a degree in science. Please I do not want to leave 2021 knowing that we have someone working at the labs that does not know what Fascism actually is, especially given the history of the labs. I thought we had to do some orientation you first week at the lab and they would explain the world in 1943 and that Japan was Imperial, Germany was Fascist, Russia was Communist, and what these terms mean.
I get it that I should proof read my post more but at least I know who fought in WW2 and their political ideologies.
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